Downloading certain data from the internet via a satellite internet connection such as the one from Viasat may save you certain amounts of data in future if the data you are downloading can be tapped into by your hard drive so that it won’t be required to be downloaded each time you choose to view certain content.

To clarify that long-winded answer, when you stream a video or a show via a platform like Hulu, YouTube or Disney+, there are certain protocols in the data that have to be downloaded from the platform’s servers each time. Could some of that be stored so that it’s not having to be transmitted over and over, using up data allowances? Possibly.

An innovation we hope to see soon would be a supplemental external hard drive for your devices, provided by your ISP, that would store certain common components of content you stream. When you stream from a streaming service you won’t need to download as much data each and every time. That would save data usage on your satellite internet plan and it would likely speed up the image rendering on your device screens. As with most ideas to provide better, faster internet and an affordable price, if it can be imagined then someone somewhere is working on it or working on something similar.

Most satellite plans do not have unlimited data; what they offer is a certain amount of higher-speed data and when you hit that wall you get throttled back to slower speeds. It’s not a cutoff, and so that’s great because you still have the internet, but you don’t have it as fast. One thing you can get into the habit of doing right away is to stream your content in Standard Definition or SD, rather than in HD. You need to check your settings in each platform to confirm the resolution as SD because the sender, like YouTube or Disney+, may send a default speed of “Best quality” that is higher – and more data-intensive – than SD. If you use satellite internet and don’t need HD for particular content like kid’s shows, old TV episodes or how-to videos on YouTube, make sure you’re not wasting precious high-speed data amounts where you don’t need them.

Viasat provides residential equipment including modem and Wi-Fi router, cables and outdoor dish to its customers. Installation is performed by a Viasat trained technician and internet signals and strength are tested on the spot prior to customer sign-off. Viasat has several plans with internet speeds ranging from 12 Mbps of download up to 50 Mbps of download. It offers its own smart-phone app to help customers monitor monthly data usage and billing.